The Monocles
by Zarius
Summary: It's the calm before the storm, Don Hunt seeks to complete the Sagan Sanction, Saki faces a date in defeat, and Krang has to wait 'till Spring for a premium package.
1. Chapter 1

**TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES:**

**THE MONOCLE**

**WRITTEN BY ZARIUS**

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><p><strong>NOTE: This takes place after "Turtles Forever" and is book nine of a ten-book series. The other books in the series include: "So Long, No Thanks For All The Fish", "My Seer, My Secretary", "Raphael Counts 'Em All", "The Lotus and The Sun", "Mutants and Miracles", "The Flies That Came To Dinner", "The Dreggs of Society", and "A Radical Portrait of Dimension X"<strong>

**The events of the last three books are VITAL to understanding some of the developments that occur in this and future books in the series, so be sure to read it before continuing. Thank you.**

**Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are trademarked by Nickelodeon. Character from the 1987 TMNT animated series are trademarked by Fred Wolf. All original characters are mine**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER ONE:<strong>

Decked out in pale grey jeans and a blue vest, wearing no shoes, and with a weapons pouch strapped to her front and back, April O'Neil, ally to three members of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and lover to a fourth from their group, stared at her reflection emanating from the shine of the Katana blade she held in her hand.

A face comprised of reservation and anxiousness.

This was the reflection she had to reject, and replace it instead with one of clear confidence and razor sharp awareness. Aware of the world she was stepping into, aware of the responsibility the blade had.

As she lifted the blade high above her head, the trembling nerves in both her hands steadied, her eyes closed, a piece of her soft hair parted in the middle, her eyes quickly snapped open, and she cut the blade through the skin of the formless air around her.

She stared intently at the long silver shaft, twisted her body in another direction, and pushed the blade forward to match her turn, thrusting it to the right of her.

She lifted one knee up, lifted the blade and held it behind her back, then keenly leapt forward, and again pushed the blade high above her head and dropped it back into the sight of her steadily sterner gaze.

She started to pick up speed as her confidence grew with the weapon.

Watching her was Master Splinter, the Turtles' firm and fair sensei, who was impressed with her prowess.

April's aggressiveness with the blade was something to note, almost as if she had been preparing for this in the many years she had spent with the fearless foursome and their master. The period where she had been trying to distance herself from them now itself a distant memory, this felt like an April who was eager to make up for her lack of involvement in their world, and a willingness to matter more to that, and to match them even in their own methods.

Finally, when it was becoming clear April was making good head-way, Splinter raised his hand and let out a bellowing declaration that this herculean effort on her part had proven enough for the time being

"Sit with me April" Splinter said.

April wiped the sweat from her forehead and walked over to a large patchwork rug, Splinter sat her down and handed her a soothing cup of herbal tea.

"You are gifted with precision April, you adapt quickly, and you attack with equal conviction" complimented Splinter

"It all comes down to years of observational experience Splinter; I'm really looking forward to trying these moves out in the field"

"Remember where you come from April, this is a world of shadows, only recently are you bringing my Turtles, one of them the light of your life, into the realm of day, do not assume every day spent with them is a day for defense"

"I guess I'm just cautious, now that me and Mike have vowed to make our lives together more public, I'm worried I'll become more than just the topic, I'll become a target, I need to best be prepared for that, not just for Mike, but for my own family in case they become targets"

Suddenly, in stormed one of April's best friends, Irma, with several piles of books stacked in her arms.

She was knee deep in clearing out the Turtles' 'study corner', she was on a bit of an errand for Donatello, her own boyfriend, who had been trying to pinpoint a book he had Irma pick up from A.P.E regarding the theoretical possibilities of incursion prevention in multiple dimensions.

Trouble is, the 'study corner' was packed with an abundance of pulp detective novels, the result of Donatello's erratic gumshoe obsession, and several comic books belonging to Michelangelo, most of which were missing their covers, and the cliff-hanger pages had all been ripped out.

April knew where they were of course, all plastered across the walls of her bedroom back at her apartment

Irma walked over and slammed the volume of collected paperbacks and hardcovers on the floor, and looked at the dour state of her clothes. A dour assortment of dust had gathered all over her blue turtleneck sweater and dryly navy skirt. She tried brushing it off with her hands, but the stain was hard to shake off.

"He doesn't read an inch of these trashy detective stories let alone half of them" she said in a foul little mood, "I've seen bookmarks placed on the _acknowledgements_ pages"

"Calm down Irma, just be thankful he hasn't been spending YOUR budget on brief flirts with escapism. Mike goes broke on the first weekend of every month collecting graphic novels and I have to go to the specialist stores and get him the books of the week"

"I feel the need to escape is what drives Donatello more these days. Since he realized he was responsible for allowing Kim Sagan to shake free of his mental bonds, he has been eager to entertain himself more than focus on the sterner studies one requires working out what he may be up to in the future" Splinter said.

"I wouldn't sweat it; the whole Sagan situation is a Monocle for Don"

"A what?" asked April, slightly befuddled.

"You know…a Monocle, what the long-sighted use to see things close up, that's what Sagan is to him. Don's a bit of a ptosis victim, in a mentally taxing sort of way, his psychological eye drops off every now and then, he's had trouble keeping it focused on something, and Sagan? Well, he's precisely what he needs to ward off the ptosis"

"Irma, honey, you're trying to spin an unhealthy obsession into a positive thing for him…I get that you want to stay loyal to your guy, but he's got to keep his drooling eye on the rails rather than off of it"

The sounds of loud exhilaration suddenly burst through the sewer's many tunnel s and soundly into the ears of the trio.

Curious, April and Irma walked out of the lair, traveled down a few tunnels, pinpointing from the echoes just where the voices were coming from, and came across the sight of the Turtles diving in and out of a large custom-built pool. Masks, weapons, sandbags and shovels could be seen encircling it.

"So that's what you spent all afternoon working on" April said to a beaming Michelangelo as he thundered out of the pool, a towel wedged above his head.

"I thought you were finally creating an extension for your room now that I was crashing here more often" April said, her arms folded, one eyebrow cynically raised. Michelangelo took the towel off of his head, straightened it, and threw it his girlfriend.

"Well now you've got a reason to crash and make waves all at the same time dudedette. We totally managed to figure out how to operate Donatello's old underwater radiator, we got the water warm like the womb"

"Care to take dip ladies?" said Leonardo as he too emerged from the composed and warm waters.

April noticed one of the three assembled was not participating in the fun and games, or felt all that snug despite the temperature.

Raphael. Who looked particularly glum?

"How is he?" said April, "I took a look at the date before I came here, it's the anniversary of…Turtle Saint…since…Crys-Mu….you know…"

"Don't remind him" Leonardo cautioned

"Did he ever tell her?"

"He couldn't even tell himself at the time…not 'till it happened"

April walked over to Raphael, who was shyly dipping his toes in and out of the custom sink hole, occasionally creating ripples as he danced the tip of his foot around the surface of the calm composed waters.

"Oh Raph, I'm so sorry" she said.

"Ah, you know me April, there are just days where you laugh, you lose"

"She was a brave little imp at the end of the day, sacrificing herself to stop her dark counterpart, you must have been so proud to have realized later you loved her knowing she was courageous 'till the last"

Raphael placed a warm hand on her own, "Mike's lucky to have you, at least all you'd do is tread on his toe, and I'd be so clumsy on a date I'd end up treading on Crys"

April didn't want to laugh at that joke, but allowed herself a slightly awkward and affectionate smile at it anyway.

"You didn't answer our fearless leader's radical notion babe, you dipping in or not?" asked Michelangelo

"If this were 8AM on a Saturday morning, I wouldn't normally deem it appropriate..."

"Come on April, we've only been off the air for nineteen years…" Raphael replied

"What do you think Irma?"

"Oh no, you may be well adjusted to be paddling about in sewer water, but I've got a clean bill of health and I'm not paying it off just yet"

"Yeah, but look at the state of you" April said, commenting on Irma's rather dour and dust-ridden clothing.

"I'll settle for home comforts…a nice refreshing and regular shower"

A buzzing came from Irma's pocket; she reached in and took out a mobile. Someone had sent her a text. She read it, her face beamed.

"Saved by the Hunt" she said, "Have to dash home and get ready, Don wants me on a stake out"

"You reckon he's finally tailed Sagan?"

"We're getting close, here's hoping this is the payoff"

"Bring him his monocle Irma, he needs to look rich" joked April


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

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><p>Krang was becoming quite restless waiting for news from Shredder.<p>

He had entered the galactic tournament fifty-six days ago and there had been no word back on his prowess challenging for the tournament's grand prize, a perfect mint condition copy of an energy ring belonging to his old partner turned rival Shreeka, a ring he had arranged to be duplicated but had been presumed to be lost following a double-cross from the jeweler bribed to replicate it.

"Infernal pay-to-view services" Krang rasped as he again tried to patch into news reports covering the tournament, "I really ought to get the galaxy span network's premium package, but it only goes down to $9.99 every spring"

Elsewhere, Bebop felt calm as he experienced the mint cool aura of air around the tranquil meadows on which he stood.

He took in a deep breath, part of him was too stupid to forget to breathe out again, so taken in he was by the grand surroundings, only the gentle beeping of a couple of cars on the open road disrupted his train of minimum thought and convinced him to let out a breath in frustration at the disruption.

"Geez, why can't I pick a spot that's nowhere near an open road on a _Monday_?" said Bebop in dismay, he looked out at one of the cars to find a kid with a kindly face staring in awe at him, before all too quickly pulling a rude facial at the mutant.

The air around him started to become more overstuffed with a faint metallic aura, electrical stimulation danced around Bebop's frame, and the walls of his present reality slid away, revealing he was inside a padded chamber held somewhere within the mammoth labyrinth that was the Technodrome, filled with naked electrons.

The door opened and the familiar features of a visibly exhausted rhinoceros in a nightgown holding a flickering candle

"Why are you grafting testing out the verisimilitude deck at this time of night?" moaned Rocksteady, "You're sucking the power out of the lower decks, and the air conditioner's been switched off"

"I miss the open air back home" argued Bebop.

"Can't you just use one of those EDX things for that?" Rocksteady asked

"Those things got Dregg's juice in 'em; I don't want my reality biting back"

"Well if you don't start dreamin' the old fashioned way, I'm going to have to come in and pinch you with this horn" said Rocksteady

"Man, if only the boss was here, he'd keep everyone in check...when is he going to be done taking names in that tournament?"

"You know what they say, the winner takes it all"

Krang's voice suddenly burst through the loudspeakers of the Technodrome.

"Bebop, Rocksteady, make your way to the main control room immediately. I'm bored. Thoroughly"

"Guess he's remembered why he keeps us around" said Rocksteady

"Yeah, people and animals always suffer for his sake"


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

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><p>The teeming mass of squadron cars roared down the highway as the yellow VW beetle ran a kamikaze course through the busy roads, even going as far as cutting in between cars and managing to skirt through every available short cut that would take them in and out of the highway, backwards and forwards, in a frantic bid to clear space and confuse pursuers, leaving them in such a state that the car and its occupants were able to resume their journey, a rendezvous vital to their survival had been set in motion<p>

Amongst the police cars caught up in the confusing exchange between cat and mouse was one belonging to Officer Sam Barrette, who was not taking the pursuit lightly

"They're trying to make us go 'round in circles, don't let them cut through any pockets of the city that can create the illusion of a repeated pattern" he ordered

A small black 1983 Audi Quattro with green stripes sprayed across the sides suddenly dashed past the police car, as it did so, a hand reached out of the window and snapped its two fingers. Sam's car suddenly froze in its tracks.

"What happened?" Barrett yelled

"Something switched on the brakes...but I've got a hunch..." his partner replied, looking over the dash, trying to find something, finally, he locked onto what he was finding, a tiny troll doll with green hair with blinking red lights in its eyes could be found hanging out of the open glove compartment

"Hunt's done it to us again" Barrett's partner responded, picking the troll out of the compartment and handing it to Barrette. "It's remote controlled, I'd try to break it but it might not cause control of the car to relinquish"

"Radio the other squadron cars, tell them to follow our route"

"Can't. Radio is dead"

Barrette pounded the car dash with his right hand.

"No, we've got to stay in front blast it, we can't let Hunt overtake us and intercept"

"But sir, it's his case. Been that way for months, he deserves to be there when the drop occurs"

"He's been obsessive about this, I've seen what that sort of drive does to people, it warps their perspectives, this isn't just a routine case, this is personal for him. We can't have that."

The Quattro soon caught up to the enemy vehicle, which was now slowly slipping out of the city's main highways and entered a series of derelict and disused office blocks. The group of rogues parked the car and dashed out of it. The rogues looked for signs that could point them in the proper direction, finally, they stumbled onto a block with a door that had been forced open and the wooden barricades surrounding it torn down. Given the remaining buildings were bolted up with such material, they took that as a welcome sign.

When they entered however, they found no trace of who they were expecting.

"Sagan's not here...great. Just swell. He must have caught on that Hunt was coming" said one of the group.

"No wait, look, he left a note" Keats said, scrambling to pick something up from the floor

"Farmhouse. North of here. Ten mile drive" he said, reading the note aloud.

"Great, he must have known the cops were coming"

"He always knows...he must be getting pretty desperate if he's had to go out of town now"

A small noise made the group turn, they saw a lean bespectacled woman shyly step into the building

"Oh, oh I'm sorry, I guess I was looking for the ladies', or somewhere to whizz anyway"

"You've got ten seconds to turn around and walk away" said one of the group.

Another member sneaked up on the woman from behind and wrapped his arm around her neck

"Five seconds to say you love me, I'd hate to be disappointed" he said

"Beef, what are you doing? Let her go, she doesn't mean any harm" Keats replied

"Time you learned what you signed on for Keats...the power is with the women, we take this broad in, the cops won't touch us"

"Don't need the personal touch, when you've got a professional bullet" said a voice from behind them, Beef turned to greet the latest intruder.

There, standing before them, was a tall and bald green creature with black shades and a long dark overcoat with sand shoes for feet and a long range rifle

"Today your diary will read, took a human hostage and was shot by one armed and angry Turtle"

"You don't scare me scale-skin" said Beef

"I'd hate to disappoint you 'Beefy', but I happen to marvel at the color of green" said the woman, who rammed her elbow into Beef's stomach, ducked, and swung her leg, catching Beef's foot and sending him hurtling to the floor. She placed one high heel on his chest and dug deep into it with the heel.

"Classiest style I've seen all week" said the Turtle, putting the rifle away.

"Seriously Don, _is_ there a bathroom in this building?" asked the woman.

Don approached Keats and the rest of the gang, two of the rogues rushed him, but Don pulled a Bo staff from his coat, rammed it square into the forehead of one of the group, then cracked it behind the back of another, before posing in a fighting stance at a frightened Keats, who fainted.

"Skinny lad" uttered a cold and collected Don Hunt as he closed Keat's eyes and patted him delicately on the cheek before walking up to the woman.

"He didn't have to approve of the whole thing, but he did...he used to be pretty big in weight too, from the group photos you kept showing me, he shed a lot, something must have changed him. Changed him real good, to make him drop all that weight..."

"The weight was a habit. Like you, he dropped what was holding him back, weighing him down. So much of you we see now, so much loss..."

"I keep what's important" replied Don.

"Like the mission?" asked the woman, "That is what you held onto the last time, what did you consider yourself?"

"I considered myself the Dark Turtle"

"Did you think you were a good person? Were you the same thing in your mind? As you are now?"

"I have to be certain of that Irma, I have to be right all the time, especially at this stage"

As the remainder of the police arrived and mop-up operations began, Barrette was quick to berate Don for his actions. Don wasn't listening. As always.

For he was in the right.

He wasn't reprimanded. Not in the slightest.

He had, after all, managed to snare the group with the aid of Irma, the laptop and its contents were now in the secure hands of the force, and now he had, courtesy of the note, the co-ordinates required to continue his pursuit.

Irma wished the kindly creature she knew once as Donatello would regain his spark and rise to the surface again, she wished she had never gotten involved with A.P.E or his obsession with tracking down disgraced scientist Professor Kim Sagan, who had used Don's own fragile state of mind to snap his own back to precious reality.

As they drove back into town in the Quattro, Irma passed a theater, she alerted Don to it.

"Fancy some popcorn and a bit of a show?" she asked, "They're showing _A Million Ways To Lie To The West_ by Jones Alexander, It's a conspiracy theorists Rosetta stone, it's funded by Pen Pal Soda, I thought you might like to check it out"

"I have business to deal with"

"The Sagan Sanction? Don't concern yourself, at the rate you're going and the amount of leads we're amassing, it's very nearly over" Irma replied

"And you can tell the future now?" snapped Don.

"There was a time where I could" said Irma*

"Don't try to speed up the process. I'm a Turtle. We take it _slowly_"

***See "My Seer, My Secretary for me on that-Zarius**


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

"You have a date" said Raphael, "She won't notice"

"Notice what?" said Leonardo as he splashed water all over the corners of his cheek and dried them with a towel

"Your usual hang-ups" Raphael replied.

Leonardo mumbled

"Hey, don't go in thinking you're going fail Master Splinter or anything, have a cavalier attitude, or do I need you to remind you of your Musketeer phase?"

"The mind does try to wander from that" Leonardo confessed

"And there's your hang-up, you drift too much, even from your business as usual phase, always trying to sort the tiniest detail out in your head, so many faults, and it's that that causes fault in yourself, I feel you on that, there's been a few times we've let it rub us all the wrong way, remember that time we all fell out tailing Shredder and Krang across Dimension X on that Turtle Trek? I feel like the writers were having their necks breathed upon heavily by the networks demanding more conflict. I had to do a lot of rationalizing after that episode...I still don't quite understand it either, I've never been used to so much fire in my voice, I approach life like it's always Saturday morning"

"You think I'm going to project these 'hang ups' onto the date?"

"Hey, she's Scottish, they love to make a commotion out of people with evident hang-ups, and they like to pick a fight about it"

"You need to pick a fight more often, like that Raphael we met during the Turtle Prime fiasco"

"Mr. Chiseled Chip on his shoulder? No way, he'd barely last nine years in our neck of the woods. Me? I'm a perfect ten and above"

"She thinks your humor's too coy, making you at least a seven in her book"

"And what's your opinion?" Raphael replied.

"Your humor gets me through the day, your prowess could do with some work"

"Seven points and one, Way to make me feel oh so Brazilian" Raphael remarked.

"How long has he been lying there?" Leonardo said, observing Michelangelo.

"You know how those weird sessions get, you can't tell if he's pooped out or pooping on a few drug peddlers" replied Raphael.

"I wish there were times where HE'D just say no" said Leonardo

He finished making his preparations and began putting on a modest black shirt with blue tie and jeans, a plastic face mask clutched in hand.

"How do I look?"

"C'mon man, April and Michelangelo are having daily picnics without the faux flesh attached to the green and lean features, you can stand a little scrutiny too"

"Taking the slower path, if days go smoothly I'll open up to her. Besides, it's more to keep a beadier eye on Sensei, he's coming with us to the book launching, he thinks the new volume will make for intriguing reading"

"Can't believe you're reading those books again...didn't you figure out all they made was _romantic _sense, not actual forward-thinking sense?"

" What I'm going through now is pretty romantic" replied Leonardo

"Oh THAT makes sense...you gonna buy her diamonds too?"

"Oh don't start" said Leonardo, "Donatello's got more than me in his pocket to afford Irma those things now"

He took a small bottle of aftershave from his right coat pocket and sprayed it on himself

"I'll be back in around an hour"

"Quick date" replied Raphael

"I feel more human already" said Leonardo, putting on his mask, "Go and play a video game or something...pick a fight in the nicest way possible"

Michelangelo, in the meantime, had fallen asleep again.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE **

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><p><em>"Congratulations. You have awoken"<em>

"Hey sleepy head, wake up" said a warm voice from the right side of the bed as Oroku Saki awoke on the left

_"Congratulations. You have awoken"_

"Aska...what...where...Is that an alarm?"

_"Congratulations. You have awoken"_

"Gift from the boyfriend" said Aska as she got up and put on a nearby robe, before walking from the bed across a wooden bridge stretching from a bedroom covered in rose bushes and exotic plants over to a black and white checkered marble kitchen.

"I thought I was your boyfriend?" said Saki

"You were my _opponent_" she said from the opposite end of her lavish dojo as she fixed herself two mugs of coffee.

"Yeah, and then we had a date" he said

_"Congratulations...she's an easy lover"_

"Oi, cut it out" Aska said, pointing a spoon and wafting it in mid-air at a small monitor camera embedded in the upper right corner of her kitchen wall

"The alarm has lip?" asked Saki

"Lip service...it's not exactly the kind I expect, the boyfriend is supposed to take care of it all, but he lets Alert here handle all my personal touches'" Aska replied, "How are you feeling anyway?"

"Just a little...chirpy, guess the date did me a lot of good"

"My uncle Phil always taught me to remind a foe bathed in the heat of combat that there's more to the spark of life"

"Your uncle's pretty wise" Saki replied, scratching the back of his head, "That impact from your shin left me feeling pretty lifeless"

Aska opened the blinds that coated the observation domes of her section of the orbiting star port

"Come along, look and see" she said.

Adalant wearily got out of bed and headed towards the view port, the two gazed out at the wisps of a milky white void, energy pouring in and out of it like a thin needle in a cotton thread.

"Beautiful isn't it? My aunt always took me to see it when I was little...it whispers to us all, my boyfriend's employers say it's the source you know...the source of all our voices..."

"What voices?" asked Saki

"They say we all have a voice that comes from beyond, that when we speak, it's actually someone else breathing life into us...there's a company my boyfriend works for, _Fifty-One Fantasies_, that have worked tirelessly the last several days to patch into that source, to bring the voices and the people they offer their services to together, and to see how much one side can benefit the other, maybe we can even switch things around. It hasn't gone smoothly though, some have rebelled...there's this one friend of my aunts' that's really causing a stir at the moment..."

A buzzing sound filled the room, disturbing the pair

"Oh excuse me, this'll be the boyfriend"

Aska walked over to the main seating area and turned on a video screen embedded in the wall

"Morning sweetums" said the cheerful and chirpy Christopher Atlas, "Any idea who your opponent is this morning?"

"Depends on what day they finally settle on...the ship should be in planetfall in an hour or two once I'm notified"

"Have you got the right day marked down? Not...fluctuating is it?" asked Christopher

"Oh no, it's definitely more stable" replied Aska, "Uncle assured me it would stabilize a bit more now that his..._associates _have taken to experimenting"

A small explosion could be heard from Christopher's end. Despite his tense nerves showing, Christopher held his own and kept smiling throughout.

"Chris...be upfront with me...what's going on?" said Aska, "What was that noise?"

"Just a slight intrusive disruption, nothing more. The Lightning League again. They've managed to instil some hopelessly cheesy 1980s-style speech into some of the rebels we've been dealing with. They're staging another coup as a result. Just one question before I'm inevitably captured and have to have my release negotiated, such a mundane part of the day, erm, _why_ is your previous opponent with you?" said Christopher

"We agreed to a date afterward. I'm old fashioned"

"Cheating on your boyfriend, what _would_ your Uncle say?"

"Well done?" replied Aska.

"Yes, well, I'll have to chat with him a bit about these 'honorable' habits of yours...can't have combatants mixing business and pleasure on the battlefield, you'll get their voices feeling most uncomfortable about wandering into territory ill-suited for their kind of profession. They'll catch on that the hand guiding them is some mentally backwards fan with ideas, let's just keep to the schedule shall we?"

"Who's my opponent then?"

"We're having some slight security trouble, but I think we can forward details on your foe to you...ah here we are, most interesting. You've wanted a slice of your Uncle's life for a while? Well feast your eyes on this..."

The details came up. Aska's eyes ignited

"Didn't think that one had it in 'em" she said

"Your foe arrives in the same length of time it should take for planet fall on your part, be ready, and be sure...best thing is I know you _won't_ be taking this one out on a date"

"And even better, after I take down my foe, I can always relish the opportunity for a post beat-down interview"

Aska switched the video monitor off and kissed Saki on the forehead

"Date's over" she said

"Just like that I'm out of here?" he said, feeling somewhat used

"Just like that" she said

Saki sulked and turned to leave. Suddenly, and swiftly, Aska tossed something in his direction. He swiftly caught it

"Parting gift"

Saki took a gander…it was the energy ring. The very prize of the tournament.

"How…why…"

"I recognized the rise of the rebellion before Chris did, figured the tournament wouldn't have much life left in it afterwards. But there _should_ always be a legacy to leave of it, I figured you deserved it for two reasons, the first being your previous experiences with Krang and Shreeka, it makes so much sense"

"What was the other reason?" Saki asked

Aska looked out at the white hot nexus and smiled.

"You remind me of my Uncle Phil. You have his voice"

_"Congratulations on your date"_


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

**SIX DAYS LATER**

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><p>Irma imagined it like this as she slept soundly in her warm apartment.<p>

The newspapers scattered across the floor of the apartment spelt it out in traditional black and white:

_Sagan snagged. Rogue scientist back in custody following Diamond smuggling ring siege at farmhouse._

Irma's faith in fortune telling, in knowing her boyfriend's capabilities inside and out, had paid off.

The monocle had been well looked into.

Donatello's ptosis had been cured.

And as she slept peacefully through the night, she imagined just what he would do next now that all had returned to normal.

Donatello would chart the course of events thoroughly as his cross-dimensional incursion theories would be passed down to a captive audience. Using the book and notes she had toiled six days earlier to bring him from the study corner.

He would breathe a heavy sigh.

He had not been careful with this. At all.

And the three words that would snap him and everyone back to reality would sting him

"I don't follow"

He would look up at his audience. Michelangelo and April would be scratching their heads; giving Donatello concerned looks, whereas Raphael would have barely found the time to remember he had a large portion of pizza stuck in his mouth, too immersed in the confounding details fed through to him to have finished chewing or swallowing it.

Leonardo and Splinter would be otherwise occupied on a double date with April's Aunt Agatha and Leonardo's new found squeeze Karai Gillen. He had been spared this embarrassing episode; at least Donatello would also be spared his disappointment.

He would know he couldn't continue on with his lessons, it had proven far too overcomplicated, too drawn out. In his frame of mind, he could do nothing but try to connect all the dots in a feverish and outlandish, and "out there" way.

It was well beyond his station.

He imagined fighting the good fight and then falling at the last hurdle, he imagined retreating into himself, becoming a darker shade of green, he dragged Irma about with him, he became the embodiment of the mission mapped out in his mind, and he had become the hunt.

His last name even took it as a title.

Don's Hunt. Don's challenge. To conclude the Sagan sanction

The questions would be quick to upload.

And then it would hit Donatello.

Suppose this _wasn't _Sagan's doing at all, maybe it never really was, perhaps it was mere taxation on Donatello's creative mind. So many people to please, so many expectations of him to outdo himself on his next feat, he felt his ego had taken on too much of a task

He began scribbling a couple of lines on the blackboard, in a bid to refocus his energies, but he had failed to grasp hold of his audience's own. They were spent, and each eventually gave an excuse to leave, with a recommendation Donatello take a much needed lie down.

As Donatello stirred in his room, trying to do as instructed, Irma came in and snuggled up beside him.

"You should get some air, can't be too healthy staying down here listening to me ramble pointlessly for what seems like whole chapters" Donatello whispered

"In your big story I was filing a psychological report on you, I stick by my assignments" said Irma back to him "The person who gave you that assignment? I think my subconscious must have based him off someone from A.P.E that came up to me for an autograph just the other day" Donatello whispered as Irma lay gently on his chest

"He once said there were perfect hunters, there was perfect defense, but wandered aloud if there was such a thing as perfect hiding. That is what creates complication…and the real threats to the mind breed within complexity, over thinking, over analyses, so many adventures we've had over the years, it's hard to bring yourself down to Earth, maybe I just envisioned a world where all the actions are created through the impact of speech, the power of a pencil, the daring of a doodle, the strength of a storyboard. Wouldn't it make it all the more easier if we just accepted ourselves as being oh so…animated?

"To ideas" said Irma, raising an empty glass. "And to the hunt. That goes for the man as well as the mission"

Irma would stare into Donatello's eyes, alight with liveliness. For she knew precisely what his plight was, what his needs were. She intended right there and then to put his problems into perspective, and what better way to do so than to sing to him

And what more appropriate song could there to be than _Rainbow Connections_

Sadly, the dream, the desire, came to an abrupt end as sleep abruptly slipped away from her and she awoke in her empty apartment bedroom. She looked up at the clock. Quarter to Seven in the morning.

She looked over the right side of an almost vacant bed to find a note, scribbled in her own lip stick

"_Gone to Sixpence's'. With the guys. Nothing to worry about. Get me rice down at the Chinese"_

Irma let out a sigh.

She knew what Don's needs were

She just wished he would pay more attention to her own.

**TO BE CONCLUDED IN BOOK TEN**


End file.
